Poetry
Siegel, Joan I.
underway, the tenants themselves sent a letter to Mr. C listing particularly onerous violations and noting their grievances. The letter was sent by certified mail on May 15 and received in...
...That day, Mr...
...But don't Mr...
...He was fully aware of rent stabilization and crime in the area when he purchased his building...
...Nonetheless, the system is insidious because it prevents legitimate grievances from being righted...
...By not removing the code violations, Mr...
...When he purchased the building, Mr...
...C acted unjustly toward his tenants...
...In fact, prior to the purchase he was aware of all the violations and must have used this information to bargain with the previous owner to lower the price...
...Cutting comers in repairing C-level violations was his way of making sure that he obtained at least a minimal rate of retum...
...As I write, Mr...
...He is not among the best, nor is he among the worst...
...At least people in his apartments get heat and hot water many days...
...C. would not be considered the exception to the norm in the North Bronx...
...The letter was sent by certified mail on May 15 and received in Mr...
...Similarly, he must have estimated how much money he would have to spend to make the building secure...
...If he bid correctly, Mr...
...The most depressing facet of the story is the length of time the tenants spent trying to obtain reasonable housing conditions...
...C's office three days later...
...Outsiders often assume that the poor are unconcerned about the environment in which they live, that they are content to live in substandard conditions, or that they are not aggressive in fighting for their rights...
...Indeed, had he done this, the tenants themselves would have been able to purchase the building...
...C agreed to remove all violations...
...The story of the tenants in Mr...
...C came to the building and, without informing the tenants, ripped out the TV antennae, an amenity that a landlord is not required to make available to tenants, off the roof...
...Even if he could not know precisely how much the Rent Guidelines Board would allow landlords to raise rents, he must have made a reasonable guess...
...The aim was pure harassment...
...But Mr...
...C thought that he could only earn 3 percent per year on the building, he should have invested his money in some other area of the city or some other venture...
...Among landlords renting to low-income tenants, Mr...
...C's contentions miss the point...
...The following day he served new legal papers to reinstate a case, which had no legal merit, against the tenant who had written the letter of complaint on behalf of all the tenants...
...This should be so even if he barely covered his costs in any given year...
...Corrupt" may be too strong a word, since, at least in this story, there is no evidence of money changing hands in order to prevent the law from taking its course...
...He cannot argue ex post facto that rent increases have been low and damage to the building high...
...He knew these things before he purchased the building...
...On the basis of those estimates, he paid $220,000 for the building...
...In particular, he would undoubtedly complain that, because of rent stabilization and crime in the area, he was unable to make a reasonable rate of return on his investment...
...C should have been able to make a normal rate of return on his investment...
...In fact, most landlords of rent-stabilized or rentcontrolled buildings make their profit not on the annual rent roll but on the capital appreciation of the building when it is sold...
...C might well retort that the system is ultimately fair because he also had grievances that were not corrected...
...During any given year, from 1984 until the present, numerous and serious code violations against the building existed...
...C was able to purchase the building at a low price because it was in such poor condition...
...C either thought he paid a fair price or was convinced that he had a bargain...
...C has 258: Commonweal...
...C's building occurs, however, hundreds of times throughout New York City and in thousands of other rental units across the United States...
...After years of concern and confrontation without gaining any satisfaction, a reasonable person, who years earlier may have joined the tenant organization with some reservations, might be tempted to conclude that it is not worth fighting any more since the system itself is corrupt...
...If, prior to purchasing the building, Mr...
...Yet, despite repeated attempts by a well-organized group of tenants, the tenants were unable to get the violations removed...
...r Mr...
Vol. 118 • April 1991 • No. 8
